This is how it goes in a different world
by Axeliane
Summary: Nothing has really gone right for Dave Karofsky. Here's how it could have been different, and maybe how it will turn out OK in the end. Basically Dave/redemption, but there's also a little Kurtofsky, both one-sided and mutual. Some AU, some not.


_In a fair world it should have gone like this._

Dave kisses Kurt in the locker room, and Kurt tells everybody, and Dave's life is finally ruined just like he knows it's going to end up anyway. Azimio punches him in the face and at least it's fucking over with, and hurts in a way that Dave can deal with. His parents find out without him having to start the conversation, and maybe they hate him and maybe not, but at least it's out there and his life can be over already, instead of this fucking waiting for the shoe to drop and the sky to fall.

_In his 5 am cold sweat tangled dreams it goes like this:_

Kurt kisses him back, dirty and hungry and a little violent and so very hot. They make out under the bleachers and in the shower and in the janitor's closet and in Kurt's car, and nobody ever needs to know because they're each other's sweet, dirty secret. Then Kurt turns it around on him and pushes Dave up against the lockers for once. He's stronger than he looks, and solid, a warm weight up against Dave's thighs and chest and stomach as he whispers in his ear that he thinks he likes it a little rough.

_Or if we're playing God here, here's what might have been._

Just around the time that Finn's finally getting off Dave's case about being hairier than the other boys, he starts to notice Santana's boobs, and the way she moves in her junior cheerleader costume. She may not be looking at him exactly, but she won't be looking at the other boys either, so they have that in common. When they start to throw conspiratory looks at her butt and whispering about things that they really have no idea about, Dave will be looking with them. He'll care. Maybe get a date with some other, second rate cheerleader and try to touch her. Maybe he won't get there, but he'll want to try to touch her. That's the important part anyhow. Then he'll tell Azimio about it later and they'll be in this together and they'll stay bros and nothing will break them apart.

_In a very different universe:_

Dave joins Glee club the first time Mr Schue asks, and he's actually capable of acting like a normal person without punching anyone or going off in a rage. He starts hanging out with Finn, because they're both jocks who like to sing and dance even if they suck at the dance part. They get together at the Hudsons' house to play Halo and practice their steps with someone else who's as slow as they are. He never threatens to kill Kurt, who eventually gets used to seeing him around and after his dad and Finn's mom get married, the Hudsons' house has Kurt in it, and Kurt takes pity on them and offers to help with the dancing. One day Finn leaves to get them all sodas from the kitchen. Their first kiss is soft, and quiet, and consensual.

_In Rachel Berry's dream world, if she knew._

Dave apparently looks at Kurt in a way that can only be decoded by a girl raised by gay dudes, so she takes him aside and talks a lot and also sings a Broadway song at him. He cries a little, but in a clearing the air sort of way, and she convinces him to come to dinner and meet her fathers. It turns out that the Mr. Berry who's obviously not the biological dad used to play football in college, and he talks to Dave about surviving the locker room and how there's light at the end of the tunnel in the form of really short and geeky but inexplicably hot pre-law guys who might actually want to date him. Mr Berry then admits that he might have been projecting a little bit. Tall, pale, pretty fashion majors are also often into jocks and a totally valid choice.

Thus filled with hope, Dave stays on the football team and in the Glee club. He may also stay in the closet, mostly, except he tells Az and Sam and Finn, and then Kurt, and his dad, and they're all surprisingly OK with it. The Berrys keep inviting him over for dinner every other week. Also, Dave never throws a Slushie again ever, which makes him even happier than it makes the other gleeks, not that they'd ever believe that.

_And here is how it works out, in the end:_

Dave fucks up the way he's fucked up everything since Kurt came prancing into his life and started being beautiful at him and lighting up French class like a goddamn floodlight at a Friday night game. Life goes to hell the way he can't bear to repeat, but then Kurt comes back like the angel that he is. A dark and fallen angel, sure, one that's dating a dude in a blazer and wants Dave to die a slow death in a PFLAG meeting, but still. Then Santana Lopez decides she needs to date him, and since they're both closet cases and sort of scary, they become friends. That lasts until she doesn't get her prom queen tiara and she pretends not to blame Dave, only so she can come inside and meet his parents and proceed to tell them exactly why they should probably start coming to PFLAG meetings too.

It's fucking scary, and then there are awkward hugs and unnatural silence. Dave spends the night shaking and crying in his room, high on adrenaline. Mortified that something so personal about him is out there in the world and it's probably impossible to take it back. He'll be a fag for the rest of his life, now, and it's just a complete derailment of everything he ever wanted. He still dumps Santana on Monday. Let them talk if they want, he's the biggest, meanest homo in this place. Seeing Hummel still hurts like a knife in his heart, more so because he can't shake the feeling that it's his fault. But there's this guy Ryan whose brother came to a meeting to talk to them, who's got bright blue eyes and runs track at Carmel. And maybe, just maybe, this is going to be some kind of OK.


End file.
